Ensuring the accuracy of the amount charged to a consumer's account is one of the most important roles of a customer service representative's job. A customer service representative must be adequately trained to resolve disputes, fulfill requests or simply answer questions about a consumer's account. These tasks must be performed by the representative in a quick, reliable, friendly and efficient manner. In order to achieve these objectives successfully, the customer service representative should be knowledgeable of the company's most recent business policies and practices; should know how to apply these rules consistently; should be able to identify and address the consumer's issues or concerns consistently; should have the capacity to accurately analyze the consumer's records and should know how to utilize this information to resolve the current issues.
In the consumer service field, various devices have been implemented to address consumer concerns and requests. Although various improvements have been achieved, a need still exists to automatically apply a company's current business rules to consistently resolve a consumer's request concerning the amount, the fees, the interest rates charged to his or her account or other inquiries. Prior to the present invention, when updating an account, customer service representatives were required to use a mainframe session emulation window to enter complex computer commands. Customer service representatives also had to participate in extensive training to learn business policies and procedures. VISA.TM. and MASTERCARD chargeback regulations were especially complex, and the representatives had to use reference manuals to understand, interpret and apply the regulations. Changes to business policies and VISA.TM./MASTERCARD regulations were communicated via bulletins or through training updates. Daily reports, requiring up to five full time employees to complete, were produced by the credit card processing service to research accounts and to determine actions such as issuing credit balance refunds, correcting processing errors, or sending a VISA.TM./MASTERCARD transaction within a certain time frame.